PG dreaming...

the first time i visited puerto galera was around 3 yrs ago, when my family was staying at a batangas hotel and my sister and i were getting bored, and i told her: punta tayong galera! so she and i (no, my parents would rather stay in the hotel room and sleep) rode the boat from batangas port to white beach. but we were there for only half a day, mostly, i remember: the sun was scorching, there were a lot of rocks underwater, and the pizza was yummy.
miel, who's from PG, has long been telling me i should go and visit, and stay for longer. so during the "all souls day break" (self-declared, mind you), i did. we stayed in miel's family home in poblacion, which has a beautiful view of the water. on the first day, we went to white beach. we ate a wonderful seafood lunch at dreamwave hotel. we alternately swam and lay under the cloudy sky until a light rainshower forced us home. we then went on a bumpy (ow!) ride to tamaraw falls. i love going to waterfalls. although this trip did not require any trekking... there's something about the sight and feel of it that washes away any tiredness that inevitably comes.

the next day, the storm hit baguio, but i was in galera, relatively dry. it rained on and off, so we weren't sure if we would get to the beach and get to work on our still-nonexistent tan. we walked to encenada, through mangroves, over limestones, to a quiet beach. in the afternoon, we went to talipanan. whoa! it's so quiet, peaceful, and a better version of bora's station 1. we swam for a full 3 hours--though no sun, we enjoyed the swimming and almost-deserted beach. after all that physical activity, we were famished. and luka's was the perfect place to satiate us. huge pizza! huge pasta serving! yummy crepes! i miss luka's!--all dishes cooked by the authentic italian owner, luka, of course!
on the last full day of my stay, we prayed so hard for the sun to shine. and it did! we went island hopping, from sabang to coco beach to boqueta to haligi beach. sabang was for walking around (too full of divers and vendors), coco beach for sunbathing (low tide, but cute facilities), boqueta for lunch (yummy grilled seafood!), and haligi for swimming with hardly any kahati. at one point, we were left alone in the tiny haligi beach, and it felt like a scene from "lost"--but it wasn't scary at all. hmm...i wanna own an island!!!
so we got beautiful tans, and ate scrumptious food, and found another place to explore and love!
and yes, i wore bikinis for the beach!


mouth-watering, delicious, humongous luka's pizza!



haligi beach (aka deserted island):